Relationships between Constructional and Visuospatial Abilities in Normal Subjects and in Focal Brain-damaged Patients

ABSTRACT We tested 125 normal subjects and 24 right and 22 left focal brain-damaged patients (RBD and LBD) on the Rey figure copying test and on a battery of perceptual and representational visuospatial tasks, in search of relationships between constructional and visuospatial abilities. Selected RBD and LBD were not affected by severe aphasia, unilateral spatial neglect or general intellectual defects. Both RBD and LBD showed defective performances on the constructional task with respect to normal subjects. As regards visuospatial tasks, both patient groups scored lower than normal subjects in judging angle width and mentally assembling abstract geometrical figures; moreover, RBD, but not LBD, achieved scores significantly lower than healthy controls in judging line orientation and analyzing geometrical abstract figures. Post-hoc comparisons did not reveal any significant differences between RBD and LBD. Multiple regression analysis showed that visuospatial abilities correlate with accuracy in copying geo...